Cookbookmaniac
  • The Dutch Shop & Cafe
    Cheap Eats Restaurant Reviews

    When i heard that there was a quaint Dutch Cafe in the middle of nowhere in Smithfield I told pizzaboy we had to go for a visit. We happen to have gone on the hottest day of the year so far. Its 40+ degrees outside and we drive over to Smithfield in a car with no-aircon. Without even thinking i say, "there had better be air-con at this place". The entire car goes quiet. None of us have ever been to the Dutch Cafe and do not know what to expect. We are following the GPS and tomatogal asks me, "Where the hell is this place? We've reached the end of the road". I look ahead and we are in the middle of nowhere. There are residential houses to our left and closed industrial warehouses on our right. I see a green warehouse ahead and i say "that must be…

  • Tan Viet Noodle House – Cabramatta
    Asian Restaurant Reviews

    Tan Viet is one of our favourite places to eat. They serve traditional vietnamese cuisine but they are famous for their "Criskin Chicken". Yes - Criskin. It's an appropriate play on the words crispy and skin. And if you are familiar with the vietnamese accent, this is how the vietnamese say crispyskin in english. Or possibly a spelling mistake made many years ago, and now is the norm. They are so reliable that we order the same thing on every visit. This is one of few places that I rarely stray from my usual order because my favourite thing on the menu is so good I want to eat it every time that I visit. The chicken is wonderfully crispy and amazingly flavourful. They somehow manage to get the skin super-crispy and the flesh really moist. My mother tells me they cook it twice. They boil it first to cook the…